1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to improvements in the dissemination of useful information. More particularly, the invention is an improved method and system for providing relevant information at a communication point.
2. The Prior Art
Individual and group scheduling applications are known in the prior art. Such scheduling applications display a person's schedule, indicating free and busy times. The schedules of several people may be compared and the common free times displayed. A meeting may therefore be scheduled at a time when all persons can attend.
In many enterprises, organizations, and work groups, members of the aforementioned are responsible for completion of identical or nearly identical tasks. These organizations seek to reduce infrastructure cost by eliminating central support organizations and passing identical tasks down to the individual employee. However, a problem arises in that the dissemination of identical tasks to a plurality of employees leads to a redundancy in effort and a concomitant loss in worker efficiency. As such, there presently exists no tools with which to assist individuals to overcome this problem. Hence, a need exists for a solution to the aforementioned problem. The instant invention satisfies such a need. Further, in addition to the aforementioned, there are several location determining architectures that are well known in the art.
In particular, there exists location tracking architectures available with Wireless Local Area Network or WLAN, Global Positioning System or GPS, badge reader tracking or Radio Frequency Identification tags tracking and generic location tracking devices. First, in the simplest of terms, WLAN is local area networking without wires, providing all the features and benefits of traditional LAN technologies like Ethernet in addition to location tracking. The location tracking used in WLAN includes both determining a location based upon the nearest cell and determining a location based upon a triangulation of the transmission source. Instead of using twisted pair wire, coaxial cable or fiber optics, wireless LANs use radio frequencies to send and transmit data between PCs or other network devices without wires or cables. Wireless LANs “talk” on spread spectrum radio waves which are less susceptible to radio noise and interference and therefore ideal for data communications. There are two types of spread spectrum: direct sequence and frequency hopping. Direct sequence is the only one that supports 11 Megabits per second (Mbps) Ethernet-like speeds.
Second, Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers normally determine their position by computing relative times of arrival of signals transmitted simultaneously from a multiplicity of GPS (or NAVSTAR) satellites. These satellites transmit, as part of their message, both satellite positioning data as well as data on clock timing, so called “ephemeris” data. The GPS location process comprises the searching for and acquiring of GPS signals, reading the ephemeris data for a multiplicity of satellites and computing the location of the receiver from this data. There are two principal functions of GPS receiving systems: (1) computation of the pseudo-ranges to the various GPS satellites, and (2) computation of the position of the receiving platform using these pseudo-ranges, satellite timing and ephemeris data. The pseudo-ranges are simply the time delays measured between the received signal from each satellite and a local clock. The satellite ephemeris and timing data is extracted from the GPS signal once it is acquired and tracked.
Finally, badge reader tracking or Radio Frequency Identification tags tracking, as well as generic location tracking devices are well known in the art and serve today in a variety of fields.